Travis Ellrott was born in Dallas, Texas, 1980. He began formally studying music composition at the University of California, Santa Barbara, in 1999, where he was awarded the Bachelor of Arts degree in 2003. His composition teachers at UCSB were Jeremy Haladyna, Joel Feigin, and Leslie Hogan. In 2003, his Viola Concerto was awarded third prize in the Corwin Awards. In 2006, Travis earned a Masters of Music degree in composition at the Conservatory of Music in the University of Missouri-Kansas City, where he studied with James Mobberley, Paul Rudy, and Zhou Long. In 2005, his Study 2 was selected for performance in the annual 60X60 project. He currently resides in Los Angeles.


Studies is a collection of eleven pieces for two channel audio using trumpet and viola samples. The identity of the samples was left intact during the compositional process; they were allowed to sound as a trumpet or viola. But on a more subtle level, they were made to do things that could only occur in the electroacoustic realm; discrete microtonal shadings or exact gestural placement, for instance. My intention was to create music that sounded simultaneously like acoustic and electroacoustic music. The title Studies is an homage to Conlon Nancarrow, whose Studies for the player piano helped to inspire not only these pieces but parts of my compositional identity.